Grave
Digger
Grave Digger have an intimate
relationship with Greece and that's why Chris Botendahl paid a visit to
our country for the promotion of their new album. Below you have the chance
to read what we talked about in our little but nevertheless very interesting
chat!
1. FIRST OF ALL WELCOME BACK TO GREECE!
-HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT IT?
I’m very happy being here, cause you know
I love Greece a lot!
2. YOU’VE RECENTLY CHANGED RECORD LABEL. WHY DID
YOU GO TO LOCOMOTIVE? WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO ACHIEVE FROM YOUR NEW COOPERATION?
HAVE YOU GOT ANY OTHER NEWS?
Because we don’t want to be number 15 priority
of Nuclear Blast and because we want to be in a label where people believe
in us. Nuclear Blast is a very big label with a lot of bands, a lot of
great, big bands and we like to have some more attention from the label.
We’ve signed for 5 years with them and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t
change to Locomotive. We want a big thing!
3. WELL GRAVE DIGGER SEEM TO BE VERY BUSY LATELY
WITH ALL THOSE BEST OF COMPILATIONS AND THE LIVE CDS AND DVDS. AREN’T YOU
AFRAID THAT THE FANS MIGHT GET FED UP WITH ALL THESE?
I don’t think so, because the DVD was released
a year ago and the single is something really special and they can choose
what they want to buy or they can even save money to buy these releases
a year or two years later or when they have money. It’s all a matter of
good politics from the label and also I think that these are some very
special items, like for example “25 To Life” and the single is very special
and the DVD is very good! We wanted to give to our fans all there is about
Grave Digger and I think we did the right thing publishing them!
4. “LIBERTY OR DEATH” HAS A MORE CLASSIC 80S HEAVY
METAL SOUND AND IT IS CLOSER TO THE SOUND OF YOUR FIRST ALBUMS. DO YOU
AGREE WITH THAT?
Yeah! We wanted to a more classic metal record,
a sound with which we also grew up. We love metal with powerful guitars
and great metal riffs and we’ve tried to bring this metal sound back to
Grave Digger and I think we’ve reached the soul of it.
-DOES THIS MEAN THAT YOU WANT WRITE EPIC MUSIC
ANY MORE?
I don’t know! We don’t think about it at the
moment! We’re happy with the new record and we’re preparing our live shows
so this isn’t something we’re gonna think about the next few months!
5. YOU’VE ALSO RELEASED THE EP “YESTERDAY” THAT
INTRODUCES A STRANGE SOUND FOR GRAVE DIGGER. IT WAS A BIG SURPRISE
TO ALL OF THE GRAVE DIGGER AND FOR ME TOO, CAUSE I LISTENED TO THE EP BEFORE
LISTENING TO THE ALBUM. WHY DID YOU DO SOMETHING SO DIFFERENT?
We just wanted to show to our fans that there
are other sides and aspects of the Grave Digger sound and that we like
some blues stuff and we also wanted to do an alternative version of “Yesterday”,
because all the band members like the song and so we did a classical/orchestral
version of the song. That was an experiment. We’ve also included a cover
version of the song “No Quarter” for a Led Zeppelin tribute from Locomotive
music and the “Reaper’s Dance” is a special song which wasn’t recorded
for the album. It’s different and doesn’t fit there so well and that’s
why we’ve decided to put it in the single.
6. GRAVE DIGGER CONSIST OF SOME OF THE BEST KNOWN
MUSICIANS IN GERMANY. DOES THIS CREATE ANY PROBLEMS DURING THE SONG WRITING
PROCESS? WHAT PROCEDURE DO YOU FOLLOW?
No, no! Everyone is very professional, we
have a stable line up, we all know what we do in the band and there’s no
competition among us. This is very good and we’re going to continue working
like this in the future as well!
7. WHICH COMPOSITION WAS THE MOST DIFFICULT FOR
YOU TO WRITE AND WHICH CAME OUT EASILY?
Hmm... I think the most difficult was the
title track, which we’ve changed a couple of times and took us about a
year to write and the ones that came out easily were “Until The Last King
Died” and “Fourecourt To Hell”.
8. WHAT’S THE LYRICAL CONTENT OF “LIBERTY OR DEATH”?
Most of the lyrics… actually all of them on
“Liberty Or Death” are written from a historical aspect, like for example
“Liberty Or Death” is about the Greek revolution against the Turks and
“Forecourt To Hell” is about the gladiator and all the songs connect to
each other sort of. So we could say there is a general concept.
9. THERE ARE RUMORS THAT YOU ARE CURRENTLY WORKING
ON THE SECOND PART OF THE RHEINGOLD TRILOGY. IS IT TRUE?
No, no! There won’t be a second part of Rheingold,
simply because the story ended on the same titled album so there’s nothing
more we can write or do about it. “Rheingold” was the first part of the
trilogy and “Liberty Or Death” is the second part of this concept.
10. YOUR COVER ARTWORK IS GREAT! IT SHOWS YOUR
MASCOT SITTING ON A THRONE AND BELOW HIM WE SEE THE SKELETONS OF ORDINARY
PEOPLE AND OF A KING. DO YOU SUGGEST THAT DEATH IS ABSOLUTE AND DOESN’T
MAKE ANY DISCRIMINATIONS? IT’S QUITE DARK!
Haha! The cover is about “Liberty Or Death”
so that’s the concept behind it. The whole human history shows us that
liberty never comes without many deaths and that’s why the reaper is above
them all and that’s the path that people follow if they want to be free.
-WHO CREATED IT?
He is a guy from Hungary and he’s called (note:
We couldn't get his name right)!!! and he also did the covers for “The
Last Supper” and for “Yesterday”. He is a great guy with good ideas and
as an artist he’s unbelievable I think! I like his works a lot.
-DID HE LISTEN TO YOUR MUSIC BEFORE CREATING THE
ARTWORK?
No, but we told him this album talks a lot
about death and he came out with his ideas and we were really amazed!
11. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO PROMOTE “LIBERTY OR DEATH”?
HAVE YOU ARRANGED A TOUR?
Yeah we arranged a tour next year with Therion
together, Sabaton and I’m looking now for some great heavy metal gothic
events.
-WHEN WE WILL SEE YOU AGAIN IN THESSALONIKI? IT’S
BEEN A LONG TIME…
Yeah! Hahaha! We have to see! I don’t
know exactly at the moment but if our record label books us shows in Europe
then there’s definitely a possibility we come back again!
12. WILL YOU SHOOT ANY VIDEO CLIP? IF YES, WHICH
SONG ARE YOU THINKING TO VISUALIZE?
There is a funny story, because we worked
really hard for the record and then we took a break and last week somebody
asked me “Hey what are you going to do with a videoclip?” and I said “Oooh!
We forgot!!!”! Hahahaha! No, honestly we really forgot to shoot a video
clip. I know it is a shame, but I think we will do some recordings from
our tour and then we will work out a video clip.
13. IS THERE A QUESTION YOU’D LIKE TO BE ASKED
AND NO ONE HAS EVER ASKED YOU? HERE’S YOUR CHANCE…
Pardon?!?! Nooo!!!! Hahahaha! I’ve been asked
so many questions all these years that I can’t think of any questions that
people haven’t asked me yet. I have no clue!
14. WHAT’S THE IDEAL TITLE THAT CAN SUM UP THE
WHOLE GRAVE DIGGER ESSENCE?
Hmmm… I think heavy metal breakdown is a good
title!!!
15. THANK YOU! IT WAS REALLY NICE TALKING TO YOU!
I HOPE YOU THE BEST OF LUCK!
Thank you too! Have a nice evening! Bye bye!
Nick “William_Kidd”
Parastatidis
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